The conventional path is to commission an architect, develop a design, take it to planning and then discover at tender stage that the budget was unrealistic. The redesign that follows is expensive, demoralising and avoidable.

For Tavistock homeowners we offer feasibility before any drawings exist. We meet at the property, talk through the brief, walk the site and produce a written budget range with assumptions stated. If the brief and the budget aren’t compatible, we say so — and we usually have suggestions about how to bring them back into alignment.

Most clients tell us afterwards that the feasibility was the most useful £750 they spent on the project.